Judges 19

Judges 19

The story told in Judges 19 is another vivid example of Israel’s downfall into sin. Like the story before it, the timing of this story is unclear. However, it does show how far some people in Israel had turned from God. Almost every person mentioned in this story was at fault in one way or another. First, the story begins with a Levite who was taking a concubine to be his wife, which is already questionable. Then, that concubine is unfaithful to the Levite and returns to her home. Her father protects her for the time being, and the Levite goes to find her and take her back to their land in Ephraim. Her father constantly asks the Levite to remain with them “just one more day.” This goes on for five days. Finally, the Levite decides to leave and return home, but he leaves late in the day. So for the night they have to stop in an unknown city. His concubine suggests staying with the Jebusites, but he refuses since they are a foreign people and not Israelites. He moves on to Gibeah instead, but he still cannot a place to stay for the night. Finally, an older man of the city sees them sleeping in the city square, and he invites them to say with them.


At this point, there really are not any major mistakes that anyone had made. There were questionable decisions, such as the Levite taking the concubine as his wife, leaving late in the day, and staying in an unfamiliar city, but they had not really done anything incredibly wrong at this point. Then, this older man seems to offer his help to them, allowing them to stay with him for the night. Half-way through this story it really does not seem as if it is going to turn out to be one of the tragic stories of Judges. However, the worst was still to come.

In the end, the bad decisions that the Levite made led to a tragic ending. Some men of the city came to the old man’s house in the middle of the night requesting to have the man that had come to stay with him (for sexual reasons). This story is actually very similar to what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot and his family. The old man refuses to send him out to them and condemns them for their requests. He appears to be standing for what is right in condemning their actions; however, he then offers the Levite’s concubine to them. In the end, the old man ends up being just as sinful as they were. They reluctantly take the concubine instead, and they abuse and beat her to death. The next morning, the Levite finds her dead at the door of the old man’s house.

Now remember, he had refused to stay in a city of foreigners. That is why he went to Gibeah. But in the end his own people were the ones who had such sinful thoughts and ended up killing a woman. Between the idol worship of Micah and the Danites and the sinful actions of the men of Gibeah, Israel was truly turning away from God in major ways. God was not at the center of their lives. Whether this was in between the reigns of some of the judges or after the time of the judges is unclear, but the end of Judges 19 is clear that Israel had never experienced something this tragic at this point in their history. They needed help. They needed God. May we take the stories of Judges 17-19 as warnings of what could happen if we turn our backs on God. May we cling to God even more, making sure that we obey His commands and stay away from the temptations around us.

Matt